


garlic knots

by nonbinarynino



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, First Meetings, Implied Sexual Content, Lukanette September 2019, Meet-Cute, i.e. marinette has been sexiled, pizza delivery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 05:37:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20501777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonbinarynino/pseuds/nonbinarynino
Summary: It's cold and dark, and she has not brushed her hair in at least ten hours. Being hit on by strangers at night is a lot more terrifying than cute.Even if the guy in question is a little cute.





	garlic knots

**Author's Note:**

> for Lukanette September 2019  
[belated] Day 1: First Meetings
> 
> despite the tags, this is completely sfw. the implied content is very very vague.

_ Delivery in _ ** _14 minutes._ **

Marinette huffs down at her phone, slightly irritated. She’s not usually the type to get upset by slow delivery times, and none of her annoyance is actually directed at the delivery driver themself, but the stupid time estimate has been bumping between thirty and ten minutes for as long as she’s been watching it. She could still be inside right now, in the heated halls, with carpet underneath her feet instead of rough concrete.

She’s sitting on the front steps outside of the library, head in her hands as she consistently refreshes the app. She is _seriously _regretting her decision not to put on a jacket, but the idea of knocking on her dorm door with her roommate’s boyfriend inside is _not _appealing whatsoever. No, she’ll just spend the night inside of the library, watching Netflix and waiting for the all-clear text from her roommate… again. 

If only Alya were able to video chat, but she’d been excitedly talking to Marinette all week about the big interview that she has today. Marinette does the time zone math in her head and deduces that Alya is probably either on her way to get ready for the interview, or is already in the middle of it. She’ll smash it, of course, regardless of how anxious she’d been leading up to it. That’s just the way that she is.

_ Delivery in _ ** _8 minutes._ **

Marinette frowns at her phone screen, distrusting. It definitely has _ not _been six minutes since the last time that she’d checked. She should write them a delirious, exhaustion-induced email about their app functionality, full of red-faced emojis and exclamation points.

“Aren’t you cold?”

Marinette snaps her head up to look at the invader - and immediately blinks. It’s a boy around her age, if not maybe a few years older. He looks comfortable in his sweatshirt, but he still definitely gives her a cool vibe, may it be his painted nails or his dyed hair. He offers her a warm smile and sits down right next to her, also pulling out his phone. _ I do not want to be hit on right now, _ she thinks. It's cold and dark, and she has not brushed her hair in at least ten hours. Being hit on by strangers at night is a lot more _terrifying _than _cute._

“Yeah,” she admits, her hesitation pushed aside for now. She should probably stop seeing guys her age as potential creeps, and more like potential friends. If she gets kidnapped, hey, at least she won’t have worried about it beforehand! “I couldn’t really head back to my dorm to get a jacket, but that’s alright. My delivery driver is coming soon.”

“Oh, getting a late night snack, huh?” he says, and for the briefest moment, she thinks that he might be making fun of her, but then he continues. “Me too. Where’d you order from?”

“Joce’s,” Marinette replies, finding the established eye contact too awkward so dropping her gaze to the ground. “I don’t think they’ll let me eat in the library, though, so I’ll probably have to eat it out here.”

The guy next to her frowns, turning to face her more fully. Marinette does the same without even really thinking about it, taking her head out of her hands and instead folding them neatly in her lap. “I thought you said that you live in a dorm.”

“Oh, I do,” she says, gesturing in the vague direction of her dorm building. “My roommate is just, um, currently occupying the space with another person, if you catch my drift.”

“Consider it caught,” he says, shrugging off his sweatshirt. Marinette almost says something along the lines of _ wow, you’re really overheating in this five degree weather? _but bites it down when she realizes that he’s handing it to her.

“Oh, I couldn’t _ possibly- _”

“I insist,” he says, and, well, she _ is _pretty freezing, so she takes it gently and pulls it over her shoulders. It’s warm, and so big that it bunches around where her butt meets the step, and if it wasn’t creepy, she thinks that she’d ask him if she could keep it. She desperately needs more warm clothes, since most of the clothes that she makes herself end up being tank tops and short skirts.

“Thanks,” she says, just as warm as his smile. “I’m Marinette, by the way.”

“Marinette,” he says, and something about his entire tone shifts, going impossibly softer. She comes to the realization that something about him seems vaguely familiar, but she cannot pinpoint what it is. It’s not his voice or clothes, and she definitely has not met him before, but something about his very _ being _is sparking some sort of knowledge in her that she doesn’t understand. “It’s lovely to meet you, Marinette. I’m Luka.” 

“Luka,” she says, and the feeling of familiarity increases. She definitely knows that name from somewhere. A boy from one of her classes that she hasn’t noticed before? Someone from her old neighborhood, or the unknowing subject of a classmate’s anecdotes? “Do you live on campus?

“No, but I lived in Melodie Hall last year. Now I’m in the student apartments across the street.” That makes sense, and probably pegs him as a returning student, not a freshman like her. Honestly, it makes her a little glad. A lot of the people in her year seem a little... overly excited about the possibilities of being a first year, to the point of crossing some lines.

“Oh, near the park? My friend Mylene’s boyfriend lives there! I’d ask if you know him, but there’s like, hundreds of people in there, right?”

“Mylene,” Luka says, eyes squinting as he looks up at the sky. “Mylene, Mylene - that wouldn’t happen to be Ivan’s girlfriend, would it?”

“Woah! You do know him!”

“We’re actually in a band together, but he lives on my floor,” Luka explains. “He’s a pretty nice guy. He and Mylene are pretty obvious soulmates, since he talks about her all the time.”

The dots connect. Mylene had mentioned that Ivan was in a band with - “you’re Juleka’s brother!” she says, a bit too loud, but he doesn’t wince like her friends do when she accidentally yells. He takes it in stride, the way that he seems to take most things. “Oh my gosh, that’s why you’re so familiar! Juleka and I went to middle school together.”

“Oh, so you’re _ that _Marinette,” he says. “You broke the curse!”

Marinette smiles, not expecting that to be the next sentence out of his mouth. She had almost forgotten about that, but now all the memories are rushing back. It had been nice, ensuring that Juleka could have a good day. “Heh, yeah, I guess so!”

"Well, curse-breaking Marinette, I have a proposition for you," he says. He glances down at his phone for a second, before looking back at her. "My food's gonna get here in two minutes, and then once you get yours, we can go back to my apartment and eat it there. I don't want to leave a nice girl here to eat pizza in the cold by herself."

She frowns at him. Has his kindness just been a way to get her to go home with him? "Sorry, I don't do that stuff."

He blinks at her, once, twice, and then _laughs. _Not maliciously, or like he's making fun of her, but just as though he's in a fortunate position to the find the world as something joyful and lighthearted. Marinette has that, most of the time, but she's grown a bit too wary. Maybe she needs to hang out with more people like Luka. "Oh, jeez, yeah, that probably came off like that. I'm not coming onto you, Marinette. I just think that we'd get along great. I won't be offended if you say no."

Marinette thinks about it for another moment. The idea of waiting for her pizza has become much less agonizing now that she has someone to chat about it with_, _and he's friends with Ivan, and Ivan doesn't associate himself with bullies or other unsavory people. He's also Juleka's older brother, and the few stories that she's heard about him have always been about nice things that he's done for her. Plus, he believes that soulmates exist. Maybe Marinette needs a little fate like that. Something a little miraculous.

"Deal," she says. "Just don't expect me to share my garlic knots with you!"

"Oh, I would never."

_Delivery completed. Enjoy your meal!_


End file.
